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of Hávard, the second of the brothers. The last,
Hlödver, married Edna (Eithne), daughter of King
Cearbhall of Ireland, and their son was Jarl Sigurd,
who, in order to gain the help of the Orkneymen
against the Scots of the mainland, restored the odal
rights which Torf-Einar had taken from them. The
restoration was probably incomplete ; we find later a
further restitution, and at this time perhaps the rights
were given only to each owner personally, and for his
lifetime. But Sigurd was successful in his conquests
on the mainland. He married the daughter of King
Malcolm of Scotland, and fell at the battle of Clontarf
in 1014. In this battle he fought on the side of
the heathen against the Christians, though, according
to a saga-story, King Olaf Tryggvason in 997 had
visited Orkney, and forcibly converted the jarl and
his men. But about this time Christianity, though
not unknown earlier, and not fully adopted until later,
was becoming recognised among the Northmen of all
countries.
Sigurd’s son Thorfinn, succeeding at the age of
five to Caithness, ultimately made himself master of
Orkney and Shetland, as well as of all the Norse
colonies in Scotland, including Galloway. His brother
Brusi, with whom he had divided Orkney at the
command of King Olaf the Saint, died in 1031,
leaving a son Ragnvald. Surviving the battle of
Stiklestad, where he had fought by the side of Olaf,
and campaigns in Russia, where he followed Harald
Hardrádi, Ragnvald returned to Orkney with a commission
from King Magnus Olafsson to hold two-thirds
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